Non-gun mass killings facts

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath_School_disaster Deadliest US incident after 9/11 and Oklahoma City. 45 dead via bombs.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Akihabara_massacre 3 dead by car, 7 by knife.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_school_massacre 8 schoolchildren killed by a knife.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_attack_on_the_Dutch_Royal_Family 8 dead by car.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Vista_massacre 4 dead by car.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/explainer/2012/07/aurora_shooting_how_did_people_commit_mass_murder_before_automatic_weapons_.html mentions an case where 6 were killed and 15 wounded with a pair of knives. (The article has confused automatic and semi-automatic weapons, BTW. No automatics in Aurora, or any of the other shootings AFAIK.)

"Guns aren’t even the most lethal mass murder weapon. According to data compiled by Grant Duwe of the Minnesota Department of Corrections, guns killed an average of 4.92 victims per mass murder in the United States during the 20th century, just edging out knives, blunt objects, and bare hands, which killed 4.52 people per incident. Fire killed 6.82 people per mass murder, while explosives far outpaced the other options at 20.82. Of the 25 deadliest mass murders in the 20th century, only 52 percent involved guns."

And of course http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarin_gas_attack_on_the_Tokyo_subway though with 10 people involved and only 13 deaths they underperformed by a lot, compared to 4-8 per culprit with knives or cars. 6000 injured though. A previous Aum sarin attack killed 8 and injured 144.

Elsewhere it's noted that mass killings tend to be well planned. Reducing the number of guns carried could plausibly reduce the number of shootings in the heat of the moment, but you'd have to eliminate guns to eliminate mass shootings; if guns are available at all then killers could get them. And you're not going to eliminate guns in a country that hasn't made all large non-human animals go extinct. And even if you did, mass killers could turn to other means. Killing 27 with just a car might be hard but most of the other shootings have been much smaller scale.

And US mass shooting deaths tend to total under one hundred per year, vs. the 11,000 murdered with guns in general, or the 35,000 killed in traffic accidents.

Note: I could actually be friendly to gun control! But mass shootings are a terrible justification for it. TSA-level terrible, as in harassing 100 million gun owners and likely not even saving any lives. The 8000 handgun murders every year would be much more apropos, though it's also true that the US non-gun homicide rate is higher than most rich countries' total homicide rate. (http://webappa.cdc.gov/sasweb/ncipc/mortrate10_us.html gives 1.38/100,000 for non-gun. 1.0 or less is typical for peaceful countries' total homicide.)

Also, if you insist on talking about guns, it's helpful to remember they're not all equal. Handguns make up the vast majority of gun murders (and half of all murders) and even the majority of mass shootings, I think, though semi-auto "assault" rifles do play a bigger (but still overall tiny) role in those. Hunting rifles are almost pristine at the moment... though I suspect you could easily kill 4-8 with a bolt action rifle if you wanted. Let alone a shotgun.

Las Campanas paseo

Another end of year party, this time for G's observatory, attended mostly by workers, the astronomers being at graduations, on vacation, or stuck at the observatory. Located in an interesting little village in the Elqui Valley, about which more anon. Hung out with an accountant and his family, again doing the English-Spanish practice exchange, mostly with him; the wife didn't seem to speak it and the 15 yo daughter's isn't good or confident enough. She did have a ring with the largest zircon I've seen, which wasn't as brilliant as I expected. I don't know if zircon is the same as cubic zirconia; aren't those supposed to be more brilliant than diamond? But I think it was emerald cut, not diamond cut.

Food: good empanadas and salads, great cerdo (pork), meh lomo (beef). Then OMG, dinner, completos (hot dogs with palta (avocado) and mayo) and cake and bon-bon. If I were keeping a diet, it would be so broken. Drinks included mango sour and pisco sour; I belatedly realized that they actually use the word 'sour', not the Spanish agrio.

The variety of appearances was interesting, largely dark-skinned part-Indian, but one girl was rather Indian-yet-pale, like a smiling Wednesday Addams, and one very Indian family had an almost English little blonde girl. Who later amused me by looking tiny compared to the completo she was licking the garnish off of. 5 or 6 yo, I'd guess? Smaller than our 6yo.

I went for a walk at one point, through a fairly picturesque village, reminding me of movie Italian villages. Narrow cobblestone streets, looking 1.5 cars wide with tiny sidewalks if any, wall to wall buildings painted bright pastels. Surprisingly many little shops and restaurants, like every few doors. I was thinking "poor agricultural village, other side of the Gini curve" but G said "no, people's winter homes." A tiny Plaza de Armas in primary colors and broken benches, fronted by a little church with IMO tacky art. Kind of like the cathedral in Santiago's art.

I really wish I'd brought my camera or phone.

I also figured out why walking around down here often feels so oppressive: no shade! Or at least a very high sun/shade ratio. Very few trees, and short buildings so it's hard to get correct-side-of-street shade. G says this region doesn't *have* native tall trees, and Chile's cracked down on alien species. At any rate, you end up walking in the sun in dusty brown landscape and no me gusta. Downtown's probably better, with 2+ story buildings, but my memory says it takes like half an hour to walk there.

G says the winters have been very dry, and there's real worry the valley water will simply run out in March.

I haven't uploaded my airport photos yet, but I don't really need to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_florida_airport_scse_pano_1280_low.jpg
That's pretty much all there is to it. Like I said, the building is two rooms deep. Lobby and security, then boarding and luggage rooms. Very bus station.